A Matter of Time
by Xeni Snow Leopard Queen
Summary: Jay has really made a mess this time. Okay, so maybe bringing his father, Lion-o into the present wasn't a good idea but, it really was Ben-Gali's fault. Plus Jay's kind of missed him. But, when he accidentally brings back his dad when he's 18 years old, Ben-Gali and the other Cats have to remember that the past has a way of catching up with you.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One, a Sheep, a Tiger, and a Lion

He was running. Faced with a situation like this anyone would have run, it was still shameful to run though. At least that's what Ben-Gali thought. He was 16, the oldest of 4 children, and was probably the oldest ThunderCat still alive. He needed to make sure no one got hurt, so he couldn't just die because of some stupid third earth predator.

Ben-Gali looked over his shoulder. The thing bleated loudly. What was he being chased by, a giant sheep? He turned back. He had seen it attack the deer he was hunting. This animal was nothing to joke about. About 10 yards away were the gates of the formidable fortress, Cats Lair.

He burst through the gates, bolted them shut, then walked upstairs to the control room. He was greeted by the laughter of the ThunderCats. They're probably laughing about me, Ben-Gali thought. It turned out that he was right. He opened up the trap door to see the other Cats laughing nervously at the surveillance film of the Warg, that was what the sheep was called, eating the leaves off of an Oak tree. His younger sister, Astrid, turned around and bowed mockingly. "Hail the conquering hero," she said voice dripping with sarcasm, "he's finally escaped from his worst foe, the giant sheep!" The other Cats all laughed at this. He laughed too. What the heck, it was a little bit funny but, only a little bit.

He smiled at his odd little family. Only they could turn almost getting eaten by a Warg into something funny. They all had their place here. There was Astrid, his twelve year old sister whose name was forever a reminder of how their parents met, the twins Ara and Leif, the youngest children at 9 years old, who probably didn't need their older brother looking after them all the time (they inherited their mom's speed). There was Jay, his 10 year old apprentice, his dark red hair and sky blue eyes reminded everyone of the missing King Lion-o and Queen Allie. His older sister was Queen Leeah, she was 12, technically the leader of the ThunderCats, and Astrid's best friend.

And then there was Ro. The panther had always been like a sister to him but, at the beginning of the summer he decided that she was something much, much, more. The only thing that kept him from asking her out was that she was Panthro's niece and he had once told Ben-Gali "If you so much as hug her in more than a friendly manner I will snap you in half." So he did what any sensible person would do. He watched her from afar and really hoped the panther wouldn't show up while he was doing it.

"So what happened to that deer you were hunting?" Leeah said

"The sheep ate it" Ben- Gali said, trying to defend himself,"That thing was vicious"

Leif walked up to him and tugged on his sleeve. "Maybe you could teach me to hunt. I could probably outrun anything that would try and get me."

"Yeah," Ara chimed in, "we're really fast"

"I'm aware of that Ara," Ben-Gali said.

"That's only because I remind you"

"As if"

Ben-Gali had just put the younger kittens to bed. It was around midnight and he was the only one up. He was just about to go to bed when he heard a scream from Astrid's and Leeah's downstairs bedroom. "Whiskers!" he thought, "Someone's attacking my sister and my queen!" He ran downstairs thinking "What if I can only save one of them?!" Ben-Gali often thought of this question. If he had a greatest fear it would be that one day they would all be captured and he would have to choose who to save. He didn't know who he would choose, and he didn't want to decide now. Ben-Gali kicked the door open. On first inspection of the room it seemed as if no one but Astrid and Leeah were there. Ben-Gali was about to start scolding them about how he thought that they were hurt, and if they screamed like that no one would help them when they needed it blah, blah, blah.

But, on closer inspection, you could see the body of a man curled up on the floor (it looked like Astrid and Leeah had gotten to him), not much older than Ben-Gali. And if you looked even closer you would see that it was a Lion.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: 20 Years Before and Later

"So what exactly do you want me to do?" asked Lion-o, "This time travel idea, it's amazing." He hoped that he didn't sound like a complete idiot.

"All you need to do is walk through the portal, check out what's on the other side, and get out," Allie said, pulling a wisp of her feathery, blond hair out of her face. "You need to be really careful there. If it gets too dangerous just get out of there, your life is a lot more important than any data I could get."

"So how is this going to work again?" Lion-o asked.

Allie then jumped into a full explanation of how the portal was going to open and why. Lion-o thought it was really cute actually, how she knew just about everything. In fact, Lion-o thought that everything about Allie was great. He really wanted to ask her out but, just like Ben-Gali with Ro, Lion-o couldn't. Unfortunately their reasons were very different. Allie had just joined the ThunderCats and, even though she might be more capable than all of the cats combined, she was generally avoided by every one of the cats except for Lion-o. It was all because she was Avian (Thunderian/Avistian/human) and Vultaire's daughter. This really made Lion-o angry because she had saved all their lives and nearly died trying to.

Lion-o was so absorbed in his thoughts that he barely noticed the bright blue time portal that opened up behind him.

"Yes, it's here now,' she said quietly. "You will be careful won't you?"

"I will," Lion-o assured her, "I definitely will."

"Good" she said.

Then Allie kissed Lion-o on the cheek and pushed him through the portal.

Lion-o fell face first into twenty years later. The future didn't look that much different to Lion-o. He was in the same hallway he had been in a couple of minutes ago, except it was night here. If he was in the same hallway he was just in, Allie's lab would be in the next room. Lion-o started towards Allie's lab. He couldn't wait to tell her that the portal had worked and see what happened to him in the future

Lion-o was so into his thoughts that he didn't watch where he was walking until he tripped and fell down a flight of stairs into a dark room. Lion-o groaned, then the world went black.

When he awoke again the lights were on and two girls who looked around 12 years old, one was blond, the other a tigress, were standing over him looking freaked out. The tigress was holding him down with a forked staff that was cutting off his supply of air.

"Who in the name of the three moons of Thundera is this?" the blond one said.

"I'm Lion-o, lord of the ThunderCats, you're suffocating me." Lion-o replied, or tried to reply. All that came out was, "huuuuuh"

"A better question is what is he doing in our bedroom?" the tigress asked.

"What's going on? Leeah, Astrid, who's that?" a sleepy male voice came from the doorway. At least, Lion-o assumed it came from the doorway because his vision was starting to become very blurry. He had to get air.

Lion-o swept the tigress's leg so that she fell and dropped the staff. Lion-o stood up. He felt great, he could breathe, he was free and….

W

H

A

M

Someone tackled him from behind, pushing him onto the floor, and beat the crud out of him.

"Don't you dare hurt them ever again!" His attacker capped off every word with a blow.

Lion-o stared up in shock at the cat who was attacking him. Even though the color of his hair was a bright, cold, white now there was no mistaking that snarl.

"Tygra."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Will Be Missed 

"What!" Ben-Gali said, stopping his attacks in surprise, "What do you mean, Tygra? He's…" Ben-Gali began to trail off at the end. He didn't want to say dead. "…gone"

"But, but, you're Tygra!" the lion said, puzzled. "Because I'm in the future and it only makes sense that you're Tygra because you look just like him except for the hair." Then he passed out again (for like the third time in this story. The poor guy's going to have brain damage if this keeps up.)

"What should we do with him?" Astrid whispered, and then looked at Ben-Gali, expecting an answer.

Ben-Gali shrugged and said, "Ask Leeah, she's the queen."

Leeah's face turned pale, "Uhmm, let's,..let's…" Just then Ro walked into the room, "Let's ask Ro what to do."

Ro yawned, "What did I just walk into? It's two in the morning and, whoa, guy passed out on the floor!" Ro's eyes widened, "What just happened here?"

He just showed up in our room and he thinks that Ben-Gali is Tygra." Leeah nudged the lion with her foot, "He's obviously crazy"

"So you want to ask my advice?"

Leeah nodded.

Ro shrugged, "Tie him up in the infirmary and we'll take a vote about what to do with him in the morning."

"I like that idea, what do you think Ben-Gali?" Leeah asked, obviously relieved that she didn't have to make a decision regarding the lion.

"I think it's a great idea. You guys go back to bed," Ben-Gali yawned, "Ro and I will take care of it"

As soon as Leeah and Astrid had gotten back into bed, Ben-Gali and Ro dragged the Lion upstairs to the makeshift infirmary and tied him to a cot. For a while they just stared at the unfamiliar cat, a sharp silence piercing the air like a knife. The warm light from the oil lamps created a romantic setting but, what do you say to a girl who has just seen you beat the fur off of a cat?

"This is really weird," Ro whispered, "How could he have gotten into the lair without any alarms going off? Do you think he used magic?"

"No," Ben-Gali assured her, "If he had magic he would have used it on me when I attacked him."

More silence.

"Hey Ben-Gali," she paused as if thinking what to say, "I'm going to bed." Then she ran into the darkness.

The cold night air ruffled Ben-Gali's hair. He wasn't going to be able to go to sleep after what had happened, mostly because of what the Lion said about Tygra. So Ben-Gali decided that instead of lying awake in his bed for the next four hours he was going to practice his accuracy with his father's whip on the roof. It was deadly, dangerous, insane, and incredibly stupid.

Oddly enough, this was where Ben-Gali felt safest.

Dancing with death helped Ben-Gali keep his mind from wandering to memories of them. Unfortunately for him, you can only force your body to do things that are obviously deadly, dangerous, insane, and incredibly stupid for about an hour before it forces you to take a break. Stopping meant remembering. Remembering meant pain. But pain was inevitable in this life, so why fight it? Ben-Gali sat down and let his mind succumb to the torrential flood of memories.

"What's it like being invisible?" a five year old Ben-Gali had said. He had been watching his father and uncle spar in the palace courtyard for the last hour and his father had just turned invisible and pinned King Lion-o to the ground.

Tygra let go of his brother who walked back up to the castle, leaving the two tigers alone.

"It's not much different from being visible, people just can't see you." Tygra said, smiling at his son.

"How do you do it?" Ben-Gali said, his eyes widening with childlike wonder.

"It's hard to explain," Tygra laughed and kneeled so that he was face to face with Ben-Gali, "I'll show you someday."

"Really?" Ben-Gali grinned.

"Yeah," Tygra grinned too, "but we'll have to wait a couple of years or we won't be able to find a whip that isn't twice as long as you." He ruffled the cub's white hair.

Then Ben-Gali's mother sped into the courtyard.

"What's wrong, Cheetara?" Tygra said, standing up.

"Tygra!" Cheetara cried, "Someone's attacking the city!"

Memories of his parents still brought tears to Ben-Gali's eyes. He stood up. There was another hour before the sun would come up. He grabbed his father's whip and swung back into action.

Authors Notes - Poor Ben-Gali, he has to be calm and collected even though he has all these problems. I loved writing this chapter and I may end up changing the genre from humor to something else if this keeps up! READ AND REVIEW, PLEASE.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: So Who Do I End Up With?

The next day before the younger cats got up, Astrid, Ro, Leeah, and Ben-Gali had a brief discussion in Astrid and Leeah's bedroom about the Lion.

"I think we need to tell them as soon as they're all up," Ro said. "There's no use trying to hide it from them."

"But do you really think it's wise to spring this on them first thing in the morning?" Astrid argued, and then said in an imitation of Ro's Pantherian accent, "Good morning kids, a crazy Lion showed up in Astrid and Leeah's bedroom last night. What do you want for breakfast?"

Ro scowled, "So you don't want to tell them."

"Maybe we could hold a council meeting after breakfast," Leeah said timidly, "that way we could be official and it wouldn't shock them so much."

Leeah was usually very shy, but she often had great ideas.

Astrid nodded, "I like that. What about you, Ro?"

"Sounds good. What about you Ben-Gali, Ben-Gali, BEN-GALI" Ro shook the white tiger from his doze.

"What, oh," Ben-Gali grinned sleepily, "Yeah, I think it's a great idea."

Ro stood up and yelled, "You weren't even listening Ben-Gali! How can you agree with an idea you haven't even heard? You were ASLEEP, remember!"

Ben-Gali stood up too, "I didn't get any sleep last night. I'm only human, Ro!"

"Well, maybe you should have slept!"

"I couldn't sleep."

"Of course you couldn't, you were up all night practicing with that stupid whip! A whip's hardly even a weapon!"

"My father fought with that whip for a long time!"

"Oh yeah, Ben-Gali? Well, in case you didn't notice, your father's dead!"

Ben-Gali glared at Ro. There had always been an unspoken rule that you never mentioned someone else's parents unless they brought it up.

"Oh Ben-Gali," Ro said softly, "I'm so…"

"Save your breath."

Then Ben-Gali turned and walked upstairs and Ro, for the first time in her life, cried.

Upstairs in the infirmary Lion-o had problems of his own. He was tied to a bed in who knows when, his brother had just beaten his tail off, and, on top of that, he had a headache to end all headaches. He tried struggling, but the ropes just seemed to get tighter.

"Maybe coming here wasn't such a good idea." Lion-o thought

The Lion closed his blue-green eyes and sighed. This was terrible. He just had to wait for something to happen so he could escape.

"Excuse me," A young boy's voice interrupted Lion-o's thoughts. "Are you awake?"

Lion-o opened his eyes. A boy with black hair and familiar, stormy blue eyes was looking down at him.

"Where am I? Let me go. Who are you? Where's Tygra? Why am I…" The boy cut Lion-o off midsentence.

"I'll answer all of your questions if you'll answer all of mine. And I'll let you go, agreed?"

"Agreed"

"Good" The boy sat down and stared at him. "You are from the past, right?"

"Yeah, how did you…"

"And you are Lion-o, Lord of the ThunderCats, right?"

"Yeah, but…"

"How old are you?"

"I'm eighteen"

The boy's face paled, "You're eighteen." He started pacing back and forth, "This is really bad. Are you sure you're eighteen?"

"Yes, now will you answer some of my questions?" The lion asked impatiently.

"Not right now, I've just completely screwed everything up."

"How did you screw up?" Lion-o asked.

"I can't tell you." The boy said, "Oh, the other Cats are going to kill me."

"Just tell me when I am and let me go. Then we can just pretend I was never here." Lion-o struggled with the ropes, but it was no use.

"You really shouldn't do that. The ropes will just get tighter." The boy sat down on the floor and stared at Lion-o. "I'm really sorry about this but I can only answer your questions if you let me make you forget everything afterwards. In fact, I can't even let you go unless you promise to forget everything I tell you."

He can't really make me forget what he says so I might as well agree with him, Lion-o thought.

"Sure" He said.

"Good," the boy said, "Okay, first things first, my name's Jay and you're twenty years into the future."

"I know that."

"Well, then," Jay said as he untied the ropes holding Lion-o to the cot, "you won't be surprised to know that I'm your son."

"What!" Lion-o said as he stood up, "You mean I'm not going to stay single for the rest of my life! Who do I end up with? Pumyra!" Lion-o's eyes widened, "I bet I end up with Cheetara, right!"

Jay fell over laughing. "You think you're going to end up with Cheetara! No way, she's way out of your league."

"Whiskers," Lion-o muttered, "I bet Tygra gets her right."

"Yeah, he does." Jay said.

"So who do I end up with?"

"I could tell you… but, I won't. I want you to try to guess."

"You're evil."

"Yes," Jay said "But I'm your son, so it's your fault. Now," Jay stood up and started walking, "let's meet the other cats."

Ben-Gali was really mad at Ro. How could she say something so mean? They had been best friends since they were four years old. When all the grownup Cats had disappeared, he and Ro had stuck together. He remembered that Cat that he fell in love with, but now she was gone, just like his parents. Ben-Gali couldn't remember what he had ever seen in her.

"I need to go check on that lion anyway," Ben-Gali thought. "It's his fault I'm in this mess in the first place."

Ben-Gali opened the door to the infirmary and gasped. The lion was gone!

Ara, Leif, and Jay don't know that he's here and, and, they're all alone! Ben-Gali thought.

A shriek came from upstairs and Ben-Gali sprung into action. He ran upstairs where he saw Ara, Leif, and Jay standing with the strange lion!

A feral growl rose from Ben-Gali's throat and he ran up and shoved the lion into the wall.

"What the…" the lion said before Ben-Gali slammed him into the wall again.

"STOP" Jay cried.

"Why?" Ben-Gali asked.

"Because he's my dad"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Deal

"What? Jay, that's not possible." Ben-Gali said, temporarily distracted from the lion. "He's not much older than I am. I know you miss your dad, but this isn't him. He's a crazy guy who showed up in the middle of the night."

"I know he showed up in the middle of the night! It's what I meant to happen." Jay replied.

"Jay this guy isn't much older than me. Just because he's a lion doesn't mean he's your dad. AND DON'T YOU MOVE!" Ben-Gali was glaring at the lion, who was backing away from him.

"Sorry," the lion said, "But the kid's telling the truth. I really did…"

"Shut. Up." Ben-Gali said, dangerously calm, "and don't lie."

The lion did as he was told but looked like he was considering making a mad dash for the door. His eyes kept darting between it and Ben-Gali. Who could blame him? He had felt the Tiger's wrath twice in forty-eight hours and that was enough to send much more advanced soldiers running with their tails between their legs.

Just then, Ara and Leif stepped out of the shadows, looking visibly shaken. Leif said, "Why'd you do that to Jay's dad, Ben-Gali?"

"Yeah, he hadn't hurt us." Ara said.

"Yeah I haven't hurt anyone in this lair." The lion agreed, obviously trying to avoid another beating.

"Shut up, you." Ben-Gali said harshly, then turned to the twins and his tone softened, "Guys, this person is taking advantage of you and Jay by telling you that he's Jay's dad. And it's a terrible thing for someone to do but sometimes people trick people who have been hurt. Do you understand?"

"They do understand! You're the one who doesn't understand, Ben-Gali." Jay looked like a tiny librarian who was scolding a naughty child who had pulled all the books off the bottom shelves. "He's from the past. That's why he's not much older than you. This man is my father. Or he will be eventually. Don't you see Ben-Gali; he can help us get our parents back!"

"We both know that's not possible." Ben-Gali said.

"Wait, what about getting your parents back? What happens to me in the future?" The lion asked, before turning pale and saying "I'm not dead, am I?"

Silence. They could have stayed there for the rest of their lives and no one would have said anything….. If Ro, Astrid, and Leeah hadn't come running upstairs armed and ready to fight.

"Ben-Gali! They're back!" Astrid cried her eyes wide with fear.

Ben-Gali turned paler than the lion, "Oh no."

All the cats, including the lion, stood upstairs in the control room where an alarm was blaring.

"What is this?" the lion shouted over the alarms.

No one appeared to have heard him. They were all staring at a blank, dark screen.

"What's the…" he started but was interrupted by a flash on the screen. Then another bright light flashed in the back of the room and everyone turned and saw a woman. She was wearing a type of red and pink armor over a black jumpsuit, and a smirk.

"Hello kittens," the woman said, "miss me?" She walked closer to the middle of the room, smiling darkly.

"Mandora" Ben-Gali growled, and braced himself for attack.

"Nice to see you too, sweetie," she said, before walking over to Jay, "I see you're still short."

"I see you're still an evil toad." Jay retorted.

Mandora glared at him and said nastily, "If I could I'd shoot you."

"What's stopping you?" Jay said, and swung at her and it hit, then sailed right through! The Cats gasped.

"I'm a hologram, kitties. You can't hurt me, I can't hurt you. My people want something you have, we have something you want," she said, before sitting down in a chair, "So let's make this simple. I'll give you your parents if you'll give me the Sword of Omens. Now you don't have to decide anything yet," she said, smiling. "I'll give you two days. If you don't agree I don't think it would be very good for you _or_ your parents."

Then Mandora disappeared leaving the cats in stunned silence.

CATS LAIR: 20 YEARS AGO

Tygra walked through the hallways looking for Lion-o. If he was with that bird girl again he was going to kill him. It was bad enough having her in the lair without them smooching every time he turned his back. Not that Tygra had ever seen them kiss. God knows that Lion-o had probably never kissed a girl before.

Tygra turned into a hallway that led to Bird Girl's bedroom. Then he saw her sitting right in the middle of the hallway, staring at nothing.

"Hey, Bird Girl, where's my brother?" He said, walking past her like she was a hat stand.

"He's in the future," Allie said, shakily, "I'm worried about him. If the portal doesn't open up soon I'm going to go get him. I'm so, so, worried about him." Then she burst into tears.

Tygra looked confused. He had never seen her cry before. It seemed unnatural. She had never seemed like a person with feelings to him. It almost made him feel guilty. And what had she said about the future?

"What do you mean he's in the future?" Tygra asked.

Allie explained how she had sent Lion-o through a portal into the future while Tygra thought of ways that he could convince Lion-o she was crazy.

"I need someone to go and get him. The portal's going to open soon and if he doesn't appear then I guess I'm going to have to enter the portal, causing it to collapse in this world. And I'll have to find Lion-o and open a portal in twenty years, but it would take a while and I might not be to make it at all," Allie said in a rush.

Then she looked at Tygra and said, "You could go, you know, he is your brother. The portal's going to open up soon and if I go it'll mess everything up. Anyway, you've had more combat experience than I have, so if you have to fight you'll get out all right."

"I guess I will." Tygra sighed, "How long will it be until this "portal" opens up?"

"About," Allie paused, "now."

Then the portal opened up again and Allie shoved Tygra into the bright blue light.

_Read and Review_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Telling

Tygra fell to the ground, in pain. He felt like he was going to be sick. He felt worse than he ever had before. Tygra wanted to curl into a ball and whimper like a kitten. No, he thought, I need to stand up. I need to make it stop. Tygra stood up and then fell again. I'm going to die and it's all Bird Girl's fault. Then everything went dark.

Lion-o wanted an explanation. This Mandora person was obviously, as Jay put it, an evil toad. She wanted the sword, and she had him, his brother, Cheetara, Panthro, and whoever the Queen of Thundera was. He wasn't dead yet.

"What are we going to do?" Leeah whispered.

"I know what we're going to do." Ben-Gali growled, then started towards Lion-o, "We're going to figure out why they came back again."

Lion-o backed up a few steps.

"I'd run now if I were you." Jay said.

Lion-o ran only just fast enough to avoid Ben-Gali's swipe. He flew through the halls, painfully aware of the clatter of footsteps behind him. Ben-Gali was almost close enough to grab him, when Lion-o tripped and fell over something. Ben-Gali was definitely going to catch him now. But Ben-Gali didn't catch him. Ben-Gali fell right next to Lion-o.

"Whiskers!" The white tiger cursed.

"Hey" Lion-o said, as he sat up, "That's what I say."

"You taught it to me," Ben-Gali grinned, "Dad nearly killed you. I believe you now."

"You believe me because of a random word?"

"Yes."

"Well, what do you think we tripped over?"

They stood up and saw Tygra on the floor.

"Jay!" Ben-Gali yelled, "Get down here!"

"He's not dead is he?"

"Oh, I don't think so. If he was dead you wouldn't be here."

"I think he's awake."

Tygra had to blink a couple of times before the world came into focus. A bunch of kids and his brother were standing over him.

"Hi" Lion-o said.

"What?" Tygra said, his voice sounded dry and scratchy.

"Are you okay?"a panther girl said.

"I guess." Tygra said, as he sat up, "Where am I?"

"We're in the future." Lion-o said.

Oh no, Lion-o must have actually believed Bird Girl!

"No I'm not." Tygra said firmly, "and you're not either."

Lion-o turned to a little black haired boy to his left, "What do you think we should do?"

"Show him proof." The boy said," Hey, Ben-Gali, get over here."

A cat with bright white and black striped hair stepped forward. He looked mildly surprised. Tygra stared at him a while, wondering why he looked so familiar. Then it hit him.

"Why is my hair white?" Tygra asked.

They looked at him like he was an idiot. It was probably because of the "Why is my hair white?" question. It was obvious that the reason his hair was white was because he was in the future and he was old.

"You think that he's you." A young tigress said, rolling her rose colored eyes.

"Well if he's not me then who is he?" Tygra asked, taken aback by being spoken to by someone who was as sarcastic as he was.

"Think, you're in the future, he looks like you, and you have a girlfriend," she said, sarcastically.

Then it really hit him.

"He's my, and you're my, my" Tygra stuttered.

"Son and daughter" the girl supplied. "And there are two more of us."

Two Cheetah cubs grinned and waved.

Tygra turned to Lion-o, "Are they really…."

"Yep" Lion-o said as he pulled up his stunned brother.

"Who are these kids?" Tygra asked.

"Let me explain." Tygra's son said.

He introduced all seven kids. Surprisingly two of them were Lion-o's. Tygra said that he wondered what girl was desperate enough to have kids with Lion-o. Lion-o said something I can't repeat.

"So where are the future us?" Tygra said.

The temperature in the room might have dropped ten degrees.

"Yeah where are we?" Lion-o said.

Leeah sighed as tears welled up in her eyes, "I guess we better tell you. It all started when…"

"We can't do it here." Astrid interrupted, "We have to do it in the control room. This hallway's too small for a conversation like this."

The cats went upstairs to the control room, the kids in the front and Lion-o and Tygra in the back. The brothers looked at each other, their eyes showed all the worry in their hearts. They weren't sure that they wanted to know what happened to them if it made their kids so upset.

"So," Leeah said as they sat down in the control room "as I was saying earlier, it all started about a month before I was born. A human named Mandora came to my dad and asked him if he would be interested in selling the Eye of Thundera."

"What!" Lion-o cried.

"You didn't sell it of course." Leeah continued, "And that made Mandora angry. She said that if you wouldn't give it to her willingly that she'd take it by force. And you said that you'd like to see her try. She said that she wasn't someone to be reckoned with and then she attacked our mom."

"Who is she?" Lion-o asked.

"Shut up." Tygra said.

"My mom fought her and won and I was born and nothing happened for another year or so." Then Leeah turned to Ben-Gali, looking like she was about to cry, and said shakily, "You better tell this part, you were older when most of this happened."

Ben-Gali saw how upset she was. They had never told anyone this story before and he and Ro never spoke of it while the kittens were awake. It was extremely hard to tell it to the same people who were gone; even if they weren't quite the same cats they had called their parents.

"Well anyway," Ben-Gali continued, "There started to be kidnappings around all of the animal kingdoms; most of them were kids, especially those living in the capital cities. Our moms persuaded you to rule out of this place for a while. There were rumors that Mumm-Ra had come back and was kidnapping an army. You two went back to his pyramid and found nothing, so no one could believe that ridiculous story anymore."

"Then, all of a sudden, the kidnappings just stopped. Everyone started to forget about it. But then these huge ships started attacking little villages and towns, burning them to the ground. We tried to move back to the capital but every time we got more than about twenty miles away the ships would show up and shoot at us until we went back. We lost all communication with Thundera. We were stuck waiting for something to happen."

"After about a month, my dad decided that he needed to do something so he told us that he was going to cross the line and get help from Thundera. Mom begged him not to go, told him it was suicide. He wouldn't listen. We followed him and watched him cross. Nothing happened. He just stood there for a while. Then the ships came out of nowhere and shot him."

"They shot me." Tygra whispered.

"They didn't kill you," Ben-Gali reassured him, "They just shot you in the leg so that you couldn't get back across. Eventually you passed out. Mom tried to help you over to our side but they shot her too. She fell to the ground and we couldn't see if she was still alive. Then you and the ship just disappeared. After that the rest of the adults just started to disappear until eventually we were all alone. We haven't seen any of the ships or Mandora until today."

The ThunderCats were quiet for a time. They were all thinking about the story they'd just heard.

"So what's the plan?" Jay asked.

"Plan?" Lion-o said.

"Yeah did you think that we were going to infiltrate Mandora's ships without a plan?" Jay said, "That's why you I brought you guys here so that you could help us defeat her."

Lion-o sat there, in stunned silence, trying to process this information.

"Well, if you don't have a plan then we'd better make one, so we can attack tomorrow and get our parents back!" Jay said excitedly.

"We all need sleep, Jay." Ro said, "Let's wait until tomorrow." Then she turned to Lion-o and Tygra and said, "Ben-Gali and I will show them their rooms."

Ro lead the way upstairs to the rooms. No one spoke. Ben-Gali stared at Ro with her long, curly ponytail. He didn't know how he had ever been mad at her. Tygra saw the way Ben-Gali was staring at her. It was the way Lion-o stared at Allie. He likes her, Tygra thought. When they reached a long hallway they separated, Ro with Lion-o, Ben-Gali with Tygra.

"You like her don't you." Tygra said.

"What!" Ben-Gali said, surprised, "Like who? Ro. Of course not! I mean she's…. And even if I did want to go out with her Panthro would kill me, since she's his niece."

"I doubt that" Tygra said.

"It's true!" Ben-Gali said, "He told me that if I so much as hugged her in more than a friendly way he would snap me in half."

"Is that so." Tygra said, smirking. He said nothing else until they reached his room.

"I think you should ask her out," he said, and then closed his bedroom door, leaving Ben-Gali outside to plan a very dangerous rescue mission.

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	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: No!

The next day Ben-Gali had formed a plan (not a very good one, but it would have to do). When the kittens, Tygra, and Lion-o started to plan he kept silent. His plan didn't involve them. It was far too dangerous for the kittens, and if Tygra and Lion-o died who knows what would happen. And putting Ro in danger scared Ben-Gali more than the thought of the approaching peril to which he was about to make himself a willing sacrifice.

Soon the others were completely immersed in their planning and it was then that Ben-Gali snuck downstairs. He grabbed his father's whip and something wrapped in a dark blue cloth. After one last look at the lair he called home, Ben-Gali ran to the place where he had last seen his parents. He couldn't be sure that he wasn't about going to get captured or even killed. The plan was perfect, but Ben-Gali was afraid that he would screw it up. He grasped the whip; everything depended on his ability to control it.

Ben-Gali stepped into the clearing and walked purposefully towards the line. 'Don't do it,' the sane part of Ben-Gali thought, 'you're going to die.' Then he was right there, right on the line. There was still time to back out. No! His parents were there.

He crossed the line.

And all of Mandora's wrath broke loose.

"Hey where's Ben-Gali?" Tygra asked.

"I don't know." Lion-o looked up from his plans to invade Mandora's ship, "You should know, he is your son."

"He's not yet." Tygra said, "I'm going to go find him. I need to ask him something."

Tygra looked pretty much everywhere before he asked Ro where Ben-Gali was. For some reason she seemed kind of anti-social, not unlike another Panther he knew.

"Have you seen Ben-Gali?" Ro asked

"Um, no, that's what I was going to ask you." Tygra said

"You haven't seen him?" Ro's eyes widened, "But, I've asked everyone else if they've seen him and they said that they thought he was with you and Lion-o."

"Well he's not." Tygra said.

Then Ro turned pale, "I know where he is."

An hour later Lion-o, Tygra, Astrid, Leeah, and Ro were in the forest near the line. They had left the younger kids at the lair. Ro had said that they needed someone to hold down the fort, but, even though no one said it, the truth was that they didn't want them to see Ben-Gali if he was hurt or dying.

The cats walked through the forest in silence. Just before they reached the clearing which held the line, Astrid stopped.

"I don't want to go any further." She whispered, "I feel like something bad is going to happen."

Ro knelt to the ground "I don't want to go any further either. But we have to. We have to find Ben-Gali." Ro said, her eyes alight with the fire of determination, "We must be brave. Something bad may happen, but if we don't do anything it will probably be worse. Do you understand?"

Astrid nodded.

"Good, now let's go." She ordered.

The cats continued to creep through the undergrowth. A tense but determined silence weighed down on them. None of them wanted to go any further, Lion-o thought. They wanted to stop, to turn around and pretend that they didn't know that this was where Ben-Gali was. But they continued because, like Ro had said, you didn't want to keep going but you had to so you did.

As they got closer, they heard voices. One was Mandora's (which was never a good thing) and the other was Ben-Gali's.

"You have the stone now let my parents go."

"This isn't the real stone, kitten."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Yes, you do. This isn't the real stone."

"You've expressed this opinion multiple times."

There was the sound of a club hitting flesh.

"I can hurt you." Mandora said, her voice the calm hiss of a snake before it bites you. "I can make you feel pain like you have never known. I am not here to play games. I want the stone, the real stone, and you cats have the stone. And I will get what I want from you in the end whether I kill you or you give it to me."

"We're stronger than you think, Mandora."

Ro beckoned the other cats towards a place where the undergrowth parted so that they could see everything in the clearing. It was a terrible sight that met them. A hundred children from every animal kingdom in grey prison uniforms stood in a ring. They all held small metal clubs and wore looks of horror and disgust.

But, the worst part was that, in the middle of the circle, stood Mandora and a wolf boy. On the ground, bleeding and beaten, lay Ben-Gali.

"So give me the real stone, Ben-Gali." Mandora hissed.

"I don't have it." Ben-Gali said.

"Then you are no use to me and therefore you must die." Mandora picked up her gun, "Wolfy, dear, hold him still, I'm no good with moving targets."

The wolf looked at Ben- Gali, then he looked back at Mandora, and then he looked at Lion-o and the cats in the trees. Then he made a choice.

He said, "No."

"What did you say to me?" Mandora growled.

"No."

"Are you quite sure?" She said, "Because if you did say no, I'd have to shock you."

She took out a small grey remote and the wolf boy flinched. Then Mandora pressed a button and the wolf fell down in agony.

"Stop, make it stop, please! I'll do anything just-" Mandora pressed the button again, "Nooooooooo!"

The boy clawed at something around his neck. Lion-o saw a steel collar, sparking under the wolf's fingers. He soon noticed that when he looked closer all of the kids wore the shock collars. The wolf lost consciousness, after minutes of writhing and howling and crying "Make it stop! Please!"

"Now, get this disgusting animal out of my sight." Mandora said as two young cat prisoners dragged the wolf out of the circle.

"Hold him" she said to a young elephant, who hurried over to Ben-Gali and, after giving him a forlorn look, stood him on his feet.

Then before any of them, prisoner or free cat, fully realized what was happening, Mandora pulled the trigger and Ben-Gali fell.

_Author's Note: I just realized that I have forgotten to announce to the world that I don't own ThunderCats. My apologies if I gave you the impression that I did own it, because I don't own it... _

_YET_

_But if I did own it that would be awesome!_

_Read and Review, Please_


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